Family Becomes Extinct, To Be Replaced with Feminism and Gender Equality

The Russians gradually lose interest in marriage and family. Recent opinion polls conducted in the Krasnoyarsk region showed that 72 of each 100 marriages end with divorce. Demographers say that family as a social unit became irrational because of the financial crisis. Psychologists explain the current trend with the development of new culture and substitution of notions. It is not ruled out that the institute of marriage will vanish in the near future.

Photo: Family Becomes Extinct, To Be Replaced with Feminism and Gender Equality

Russia 's Krasnoyarsk region takes the lead in Siberia on the number of marriages and divorces. The statistics data collected during the recent six months shows that 10,384 couples entered into a marriage in the region, and 7,525 spouses filed for divorce during the same period of time.

In the Kirov region, 759 of each 1,000 marriages end with divorce. The Stavropol region has 70 divorces per each 100 marriages.

The analysis of the data in Russia on the whole shows that the Russians lose their interest in building families. The number of weddings dropped by 13 percent during the first quarter of 2010 in comparison with the same period of 2009, the Russian Statistics Agency said. The number of divorces dropped by only eight percent. The data for the crisis years of 2008-2009 shows a steady trend for the reduction of the number of contracted marriages and the increase of the number of divorces.

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What makes Russians live in loneliness? Every specialist would have their own opinion regarding the subject and all of them would be right in their own way.

Demographers say that the Russians lost interest in marriage when the economic crisis began in the country. Family became unprofitable. The spouses, who wish to divorce, are mostly people with the income above average. Families with lower level of income presumably try to preserve marriage. Financial independence makes people more liberated, and their values are a little different.

The trend for the increase of the number of divorces appeared during the beginning of the 1960s, when this procedure became available to citizens of civilized states. For example, the number of divorces in Russia in 1986 increased 4.6 times in comparison with 1940.

Demographers also say that many Russian families are currently created by those born during the beginning of the 1990s. That was a critical demographic period in Russia, when the birth rate reduced considerably. Therefore, the number of potential brides and grooms has dropped these days. Even if these potential brides and grooms find each other, they do not hurry to get married. It was previously considered a norm for young people to get married at age 17-18. Nowadays, everyone believes that it is too early. The age of marriage grows every year. Men start to think of marriage shortly before they turn 30. Women have such thoughts when they turn 25-28.

One should not forget about common law marriage. Many people prefer not to legalize their relations, but to live together for several years to see how they can get along.

To crown it all, people begin to forget about family because no one promotes family values in Russia.

"Remember the Soviet times, when there were various institutes and programs to support family. You wouldn’t be able to join the party if your family was dysfunctional, you would not get a raise at your job either. "Family is a social unit" - this slogan sounds trivial today, and young people ridicule such priorities. Today, lifestyle dictates the rules of freedom. People say these days that love is a form of psychological dependence. The economic constituent is the primary aspect in a family today, although before it was the child that was the most important. Nowadays, family is become something like a purchase, a brand, a part of the image. When young people decide to start a family today, they follow stereotypes, rather than their personal feelings," family psychologist Elena Vetlitskaya told Pravda.Ru

Common people have their own viewpoint about the problem.

"I think that we have so many divorces today because young people do not treat such notion as 'family' seriously. To my mind, one needs to get married only when both partners want and are ready to have children. In other cases, there is no need to tie the knot - it's just enough to date each other," a poster wrote on a Russian forum.

"A divorce is not something unique. It is a consequence of living between two eras. On the one hand, the modern-day society tends to pursue free relationships. On the other hand, most people are conservative in their nature, which makes them preserve the institute of marriage. Marriage today is like atavism, which practically no one takes seriously - that's why divorces occur. It happens mechanically, and no one thinks why it happens - that's why marriages occur," another poster wrote.

It is not ruled out that the institute of family will disappear with time, if people already describe family as "atavism." We may soon have feminism and gender equality instead of family.

Viktoria Lapko